neuroethics

Types of Enhancers : 3 cats

Attention, Mem, Mood and Personality

Types of Enhancers: Attetention

*Adderal*
*Ritalin*
--Boosts attention by acting on dopamine and norepinephrine which inturn affects prefrontal cortex function
PFC
--Executive function, attention, working mem, learning, action inhibition — mainly attention
--At lowdoses only affects pfc, not super sure why this is the case
--High does effects whole body with sideeffects including shaking and nervousness

Types of Enhancers: Memory

*Aricpet (Alzhiemers drug)*
Targets enzymes that usually breakdown acetylcholinewhich is a neurotransmitter that is important for memory

Types of Enhancers: Mood and Personality

*Prozac*
Is an SSRI, affects mood by preventing the reuptake of serotonin

Neuron Parts and Oder of Impulses

*Soma* = Cell body
*Dendrite*=Branched extension of a neuron
*axon and terminal*= Leg thing and the end of it
--Order of impluses
Dendrite to soma out trough axon where stuff happens at the synaptic terminal
--Electrical signals within neurons and chemical between

What happens at the synaptic terminal

- Neural transmitters bridge the gap
- Electrical signals cause vessels to fuse synaptic membrane and release neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap
- These latch and sitmualr other neurons through depolarization, electrical changes, the use of enzymes

Therapy vs Enhancement

*Therapy*: treatment of individuals with known neurological problems
*Enhancements*: altering the workings of a "normal" human brain
-What even is the definition of normal?

General Arguments about NEs and rebutals

*Cheating*
Maybe its only cheating if its against the rules
*Unnatural*
We do lots of unnatural things
*Drug abuse*
The fact that they are drugs in themselves shouldnt count against them
- chan, harris, greenlt etal

Moral Equivalence Arguments

1. No moral difference between neural enhancers and other ways to boost cognitive abilities
Ex. not different from better nutrition, exercise, and sleep
2. There is no difference between using drugs to make up for redued fucniton and and using it to enhance normal function
What society deems "normal?" is always changing

- greenly and harris

The Precautionary Principle

Leon Kass and the presidents Presidents Council of Biotethics
-Delicaltely balanced system that we dont fully understand and shouldnt get in the way of
---Comparison to an ecosytem, small changes coud lead to big and undesired changes later
---Alternation of this system could bring about disastrous results
---"Go slowly you might ruin everything"

Explicit Coercion

--would arise if one was required to take cog enhancers by their jobs or by their schohls
--Some ppl might think this is a good idea for some professions like airtarffic controls(Sahakain zamir )
Could be good for schools to require (harris)

implicit coercion

Would arise if one were competittong against enhanced co-workes or students

The Red Queen Effect

-If everyone takes neural enhancers than we all end up being at the same level
--Ex. everyone dopping then the standards for the tour go up (doesnt mean that the wrong person is winning tho)
--Counter example with doctors
-Might be undesirable as sideedects everoyen is subject tto
-Should we let it happen?
--Analogy to college education

Distributive Justice

Farah, Kass - cost and social barriers to using enhancers will result in an uneven playing field
This is probs already occurring as those who are taking ritalin are mainly middle or upper class college students
but - things like tutoring and cosmetic surgery are already not equally distriuted
Maybe distributing these things equally wont even be that hard to do

Side Effects of Ritalin

-Blackbox rating, cardio vascular adverse events, excitibilty, insomnia, blurred vision, weight loss, other bad stuff
-In healthy subjects
--10% of college students use
--Effects in healthy subjects is questionable
--Most reliably affects memory via the dorsal later PFC only
--Might depend on genetic dopamine levels

Life Style Drugs and Medicaliztion

- flower
- Might become increasingly available to the point that what used to be normal is now seen as pathological
Example with shyness
"Risk turning a normal expression of human behavior into a disease that requires treatment"

Thing about greenlt et al the wasnt on the slides. 4 ways

1. Research
-- knowledge super important. good policy based on good info
2. Leadership from relevant professions
- physicians (gatekeepers) educators, human resource professionals
3. Public Education
- broadly dessiminate info through teachers, physicans, would also talk about other ways to neuro enhance things
4. Legislation
- new laws and stuff are not needing, existing legislation should be brought into line
-- avoid making felons out of those seeking enhancement

Mem and you

link between memory and the self
Lock identifies personal identities entirely with our memories

PTSD and symptoms

Post Traumatic Stress disorder
Has physical and psyhco sympts
Flashbacks, hallucinations, nightmares
Brought on by traumatic events that threaten death or injury

flashbulb memories and why they might be flashy

- the idea that emotionally charged memories are stored with more detail
-- Due to an increase in stress hormones like *catecholamines* (epi and norepi)
--This increase in stress hormones causes the amygdala to influence activity in the brain causing more resilient memories to be created
-*Amygala*: closely involved with emotions such as fear
-*Hippocampus*: involved in the formation of memories

Propranolol

-Is a beta blocker
(was previously used to treat hypertension, social anxiety,, and stage fright)
--Blocks the beta adrenergic receptor (the receptor for epinephrine)
--Subjects in the 'emotional' condition given propranolol remembered less than those given a placebo
--Maybe doesnt stop the amyg from doing negative emotion but from communicating wth the hippocampus

how prop could help PTSD baddies. side effects

Could be given to those inhosipitals immediately after experiences a trauma events
limitations and side effects
Within 6hrs bc of the time line of memory consolidation
Se: sedation, difficulty focusing

PCBs (lame) concerns about mem dampeners

inauthenticity, resilence, moral sig of events

Inauthenticity

It divorces one from reality
One loses the chance to make sense of bad experiences
When you take prop you dont know whether you will be able to do this or not
It is to pursue a happiness that is less than human
I hate this take

recognizing and conveying the moral significance of events/ losing value as a witness

An immoral action might seems less imoral if not in the company of the proper emotional reactions
Maybe this wouldnt make you a genuine witness
"Yes i was there but it wasnt that bad"
Also want someone to remember as many details as possible
Maybe these drugs would be used to prevent feelings of shame or moral conciense

building resilience

Ppl learn to deal with pain and suffering through practice
If you take a drug instead, one never learns this skills
This seems like bullshit to mean tbh

kolber against the PCB inauthenticity

PCB Says: mem damps means not going through painful but important process
2 ways to understand and counters
1. Allows us to relieve stress in a "false"/"undeserved" way
A. but many experiences have no redeeming aspects and not everyone is capab;e of such assim
2. Those who take mem dampenders wont learn to deal with suffering
B. If its addictive in this was, then we won't prescribe it
Many have good coping skills w/o trauma

kolber against the idea of a genuine life

What does being genuine even mean?
1. Being genuine, in the sense of under no illusions
2. Living a genuine life
These two views seem in tension
--e.g., a medication that cured people's tendency to overestimate their importanceand abilities would be more genuine in the first sense, but not the other...
• why is having a genuine life more important than ridding oneself of truly painfulmemories?

kolber reason for thinking our memory isnt optimal

1. It seems unlikely our memories are optimized for our individual needs
many aspects of our "design" seem ill-suited to our modern day environment
2. What, really, is "the given" for human beings?
Which of the given is to be respected?
Why isn't our ability to improve ourselves a given?

the "Dearthling" thought experiment

if a dearthling wouldn't be compelled to take a pill that increases his chances of PTSD, why would an earthling be compelled to not take the pill?

Depression symtoms

sad appearance, slowness of movement and thought, loss of weight delusions or hallucinations

SSRIs

-Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
--Work (kinda ? ) by making serotonin more abundant in the brain
--SRRIS rblock the receptors which prevent the reabsorbtion of S
-theories about why SSRIs help with depression
--The chemical imbalance theory
INCORRECT (there is a delay)
--Increaseh hippocampal volume ?
--Increased neural plasticity / overall brain integrity

SSRIS and Kramer

-Cosmetic pharamacology: giving anti depressants to the non-drepressed
-the anecdotal (from Kramer) and empirical evidence for SSRIs having these results
--Some people claim to feel "better than they ever had before"
--Feels less negative, are more cooperative
---Problems in life evoke less negative emotions
---*this one meta studied showed that SSRIs only help the severely depressed

Responsibitly to self? SSRIs

Are we the same self over time? Are we morally committed to maintaining the self?
Idea that to live well you must discover the goals and values that are unique to you and strive to actualize them

Reasons for widspread use of SSRIs

perceived effectiveness, ease of use, relatively mild side effects
-direct to customer advertising
-the vagueness of the concept of mental illness
-Elasticity of diagnosis
--300% increase in dignosses of depression between 1987 and 1997
---Implicit criteria for diagnosis
They respond to SSRIs

questions about whether those taking SSRIs are really depressed

-Criteria used to diagnos is super vague
-Some psychiatrist like krammer are giving more patients SSRIs even if they arent like full blown depressed
-Many sympts might just be noraml responses to lives trials and set backs
--Perhaps they are just healthy ppl brightening their mood
--Would their be something wrong with this
--Tim Dayton took a ton of wellbutrin
-65% increase between 99-14
-12 over 12 8.6 males 16.5 female
-60% more than 2 years 25 more than 10 years

Kramer, Valorization